Originally uploaded by English@Stevenson
Today we have an exclusive interview with the Vice President of CEA-MAG himself, Dr. Joseph E. Marshall.
Not only was Stevenson host of this year’s annual conference, but the organization’s VP is a professor here and the person in charge of this site’s news updates.
He is an Assistant Professor of English and specializes in classical and medieval literature, though some of his classes go into the Early Modern period, such as this semester’s Senior Seminar on John Milton.
What he loves doing in his courses is tracing concepts from their roots, often classical, and observing their evolution through literary history. This summer, he’s going to teach a class to that effect on the the wise, paternal wizard, starting with Merlin and going through to Dumbledore.
He would like all who are interested in English to know the many things one can get with the degree. In his life, he was accepted to law school, took a position as an investment banker, worked in publications for a foundation, and was accepted to graduate school all on one undergraduate degree.
One class he really enjoyed teaching was on Transgression, which covered controversial works. He enjoyed how the graphic depictions of depraved acts within a literary setting showed ways of thinking that predated famous psychological and philosophical thinkers. The arguments presented in such works made students think about life, which Dr. Marshall likes to accomplish in all of his classes.
As for CEA-MAG itself, Dr. Marshall was quite pleased with how the conference with. Aside from being the Vice President, he is the webmaster and on the Executive Council. He also organized the event itself , which he says is great for bringing people to our beautiful campus.
-–Stephen Carnaggio, Media Intern, English Department